Joseph A. O'Hare

Who is Joseph A. O'Hare?

Rev. Joseph A. O'Hare is a Jesuit priest, New York City civic leader and editor. He was a longtime president of Fordham University and, for a brief period, President of Regis High School, a New York City Jesuit High School.

O'Hare was born in New York City. He trained for the priesthood at the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, where he was ordained in 1961. He taught at Ateneo de Manila from 1955 to 1958 and again from 1967 to 1972. He earned a doctorate in Philosophy from Fordham in 1968.

He was associate editor of the Catholic weekly America between 1972 and 1975, and was editor in chief between 1975 and 1984, when he became president of Fordham University.

While serving as president of Fordham he was appointed by Mayor Edward I. Koch to the Mayor's Committee on Appointments, which interviewed candidates for city commissioners, and the Charter Revision Commission of the City of New York.

O'Hare was appointed the first chairman of the city's Campaign Finance Board in 1988, and was reappointed twice in the 1990s by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, serving until 2003. The board was created in the wake of several political corruption scandals. It gives matching funds to qualified candidates.